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The proposed “Fairness Formula” to reform school funding would result in property tax savings for 75 percent of homeowners. (SenateNJ.com)

A recent Asbury Park Press article on Governor Christie’s proposed “Fairness Formula” questioned if his plan to treat all New Jersey students equally would hurt New Jersey.

As proof that it would, a professor from the University of Nevada pointed to other states that are attempting to make their school funding systems more like ours.

Such comparisons are unwise, as are attempts by those states to replicate the flawed school funding logic that the New Jersey Supreme Court has forced upon Garden State taxpayers and students for the past 30 years.

Why the ‘Fairness Formula’ is the right approach for funding our schools & most affordable plan for NJ taxpayers: https://t.co/mZvGQQgV9z

In a well-intentioned, but failed, attempt to improve educational achievement in underperforming school districts, more than half of all state school aid has been allocated to just 31 so-called Abbott districts under the court’s direction.

While those districts received a total of $97 billion in state aid over the last three decades, the other 544 districts in the state received just $88 billion combined.

Despite this flood of money over many years, educational outcomes have not improved in these long-failing school districts.

This is a result of the massive inequities the court created by sending tens of thousands of dollars per student of state school aid to some districts, and just hundreds to others.

In the greatest examples of this disparity, Camden and Asbury Park receive around $30,000 of state aid per student, while North Caldwell and Haddonfield receive just $360 per student.

School districts along the Jersey Shore don’t fare much better with the aid they receive under the current formula: Brick – $4,045/student; Lakewood – $4,093/student; Toms River – $4,344/student; and Wall – $1,003/student.

The Fairness Formula seeks to end this inequity by implementing a new school funding formula that is simple, fair and transparent.

Under the Governor’s plan, every school district in the state would receive an identical $6,599 per student enrolled.